Tessa's POV:

Aeria was completely relaxed as she walked down the short hallway and opened another door. This room was full of numerous crates that were packed together to form narrow rows between them. The air was somewhat stagnant and not what I was used to.

We went up and down a few rows before going through yet another door into another room with more crates. I hadn't seen another Kymari since we left the others, which I thought was odd considering how many had been in this building up until this point.

Aeria had barely taken several steps into this room when a hiss issued from my throat. My claws extended, digging into her thick shoulder pads. My head whipped around as my nostrils flared at the faint smell. Danger.

Something was in the room, and it wasn't good.

"Mom! Dad! There's something bad in here!" My words echoed back at me.

"Dirk! Tell Mom and Dad to warn Aeria!" This call also echoed. It wasn't the first time Dirk had blocked the mindlink, but this was certainly the worst time possible.

They couldn't hear me. That meant they also wouldn't be able to warn Aeria. I couldn't just let her walk into danger!

"Aeria! There's danger here!" The words echoed through my mind.

Nothing. She continued walking towards the crates as she had in the last room. Something told me that I should avoid such narrow spaces.

Getting desperate, I half unfurled my wings with a warning screech as I tried again. "Aeria! There's something in this room!"

The smell was almost chokingly strong – we had to leave, now!

"Aeria! There's danger!"

I barely registered that my last call had lacked an echo before a flare of alarm jolted through me when I spotted a shiny black bump emerge from between two of the crates just above us.

With a shriek, I jumped up towards the creature's nose. My claws dug into the black scales on its nose before my feet pushed me to a safer distance. The nose rapidly retreated into the shadows with a chilling silence. Aeria pulled on my leash to bring me back to her.

She caught me and cradled me in her arms as she jogged away from the creature's hiding spot. "Good job!"

We quickly escaped into another room and closed the door behind us. I exhaled in relief before tensing. There was another smell here, and it wasn't much better than what we had just escaped.

I tried warning Aeria again. "There is something bad in this room, too."

There was no echo, but Aeria didn't react to my voice. "Aeria? Can you hear me? There's danger."

She shifted me onto her shoulder, still not replying to my mindvoice. I already knew that Aeria couldn't understand the spoken dragonet language, and my jaws refused to form the sounds of her speech. The inability to communicate was frustrating.

A growl left my throat as I scanned the room. The grating sound of it was quite different from the playful version that she had heard many times before. It was my best way of warning her at the moment.

She glanced at me as she began walking quickly and warily through more rows of crates. I kept glancing around in case this thing tried to sneak up on us. I quickly realized that it was hard to watch for something if you didn't know what you were looking for.

With a faint huff, I concentrated on the Blood Memories. It was hard to pull them up since the smell was so distracting and I was trying to watch for the danger.

Crawler. There was some sort of mutant spider in this room. It wasn't that big, but its bite would put Aeria in the hospital.

I searched harder; the creature in the last room had been a sicora. Or, at least, that was my best guess. The Memories told me that it should have attacked, not ran away. Sicora were very dangerous.

My tail lashed as the scent got stronger, and I was relieved to see another door ahead of us. Thankfully, we got out of the room without seeing the crawler. The door led to an empty hallway, and we walked down it.

I jumped slightly as Mom's voice appeared in my head. "Put your mind shield up. It was just a test. It's Dirk's turn now. We can talk later."

A test?

The door ahead of us opened with a faint hiss, revealing the others whom we had left behind earlier. I stared in shock before realizing that we had come in through a different door.

Mom snorted faintly as we came towards her. Belatedly, I raised my mind shield like she had told me to. Aeria lifted her hand to me, and I climbed on.

She passed me to Taureen, and I jumped onto his leather gauntlet as he took my leash. Dirk looked confused and slightly uneasy as he was passed to Aeria.

With Dirk now on her shoulder, Aeria turned and walked through the door that we had originally gone through, leaving the group behind once more.

Everyone was relaxed, except for me. I had smelled those creatures – there was no way I could just forget about them. But Mom said it had been a test...

She was lying down on Taureen's shoulder pad while Dad sat on his other one. Neither one looked concerned. Did they know what was in those rooms? Somehow, I suspected that they did. Aeria had seen the sicora and hadn't been scared.

I climbed up Taureen's shirt so I could be near Mom. She draped her wing over me reassuringly. Even with her beside me, my eyes kept drifting back to the two doors uneasily.

"The scarlet is still on edge," one of the Kymari commented.

Taureen glanced at me. "I'm not too surprised. Tasha doesn't calm down until she either sees them dead or hasn't been able to smell them for a couple of hours."

Tkael murmured, "It was a bit of a challenge to get the sicora hide in the room and seal the ventilation system so no trace of the scent could get out here. We actually had to replace the doors with true airlock ones, but it will be worth it for future training sessions."

"It won't take Aeria long to go through the rooms," Soranto said as he watched the door. "I'm curious to hear if they reacted differently."

Silence fell as we continued to wait. With my mind shields up, I wouldn't know if Dirk even tried to call me. I hoped that he didn't get as scared as I did.

Just when I began to wonder if they had been ambushed, the door opened. Aeria came through, with Dirk hiding under her long black hair.

"How did it go?" Taureen inquired as he walked towards her.

Aeria rubbed Dirk's head in an attempt to soothe him. "Even someone who had never seen a fire lizard before would have known that something was wrong. Both of them picked up the sicora's scent the moment we walked through the door and reacted quite strongly. Tessa actually managed to scratch its nose when she spotted it. She saw it almost before I did."

Dad flew from Taureen's shoulder to Aeria's, bumping his head against Dirk's. From how my brother looked at him, I was pretty sure that they were mindspeaking.

Mom nuzzled my head, chirping aloud, "You can lower your mind shields now."

"It's a good thing I had a leash on Dirk, though," Aeria continued. "Or else he would have bolted when he caught a glimpse of the sicora."

"That thing was huge! It would have swallowed me in one bite! I can't fly well enough to fight something like that, and Aeria wouldn't turn back regardless of how much I hissed and snarled!" Dirk's voice was still shaking.

Dad hummed reassuringly. "There was no need for you to fight it. Normally, a handler has at least two fighters with them so we don't get close to the danger. We simply guide them close to it or warn them of its presence. Most fledglings will flee from sicora, which is a safer choice for them. The desire to kill these creatures comes as you grow up."

"How did they do in the room with the crawler?" Tkael asked.

"I didn't see it, but both of them knew something was around. They were getting pretty worked up, so I didn't go through all of the rows."

He nodded, unsurprised. "We suspected that their reaction was instinctive, and this just confirms it. It's interesting that Dirk tried to evade the sicora instead of attacking it, although as long as they do react, that is all that is needed."

Taureen looked around. "I think that is enough for today."

Everyone nodded as we turned around and left the way our group had originally come.

"Was the sicora real?" I asked Mom.

"They used the skin from a dead one to leave scent trails. They also put the hide on something to make it look like it was still alive. A robot made it move back if someone got too close. The crawler was one that they killed on a ship a few days ago."

"Why would they let something like that on a ship?"

"It snuck on board. That is why the dragonets check the spaceships. To keep sicora and crawlers off this planet. Dragonets help their handlers find them, and then the fighters kill them."

I didn't like the sicora and wanted to avoid that terrible smell, but I didn't like the thought of them sneaking into the city either. It gave me a lot to think about on the way home.